Henry  IVard  Beecher 
and  the  Jews 


KOHUT 


Cibrar^  of  €he  trheolo^ical  Seminar;? 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 


John  Stuart  Conning,  D.D 


BX  7260  .B3  K64  1913 
Kohut,  George  Alexander, 

1874-1933. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  the 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  witin  funding  from 

Princeton  Tiieological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/lienrywardbeeclierOOkoliu 


Henry  Ward  Beecher^^ 
and  the  Jews 


In  Co3imemoration  of  the 
CexVTExaby   of   His  Birth 

{June  24th,  1913) 


By  V 

GEORGE  ALEXANDER  KOHUT 


PORTLAND,  OREGON 
1913 


Reprinted  in  100  copies  from  the  Anniversary  Number  of 
THE  JEWISH  TRIBUNE 
Portland,  Oregon,  December  19.  1913 


TO     MY     UNCLE 
DR.     ADOLPH     KOHUT 
UNGARISCHER     KOENIGLICHER 
in     BERLIN 


RAT 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 


Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 
the   Jews 

T  IS  recorded  of  Rabbi  Jehiel,  of 
Paris,  tbe  gi^eat  Talmudist,  who  flour- 
ished in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  that  he  was  also  an  accom- 
plished Cabbalist,  who,  in  the  secrecy 
of  his  chamber,  was  addicted  to  the 
practice  of  the  black  art.  His  fame 
soon  spread  abroad  among  the  masses.  Indeed,  it  was 
rumored  that  in  his  underground  cell,  where  he  spent 
most  of  his  days,  engTOssed  in  ardent  study,  there 
burned  a  magical  lamp,  which  shed  its  light  from 
Sabbath  to  Sabbath,  without  aid  of  oil  or  fuel.  Curious 
crowds  gathered  in  front  of  his  home,  anxious  to 
see  this  marvel,  but  the  Rabbi  had  drawn  a  circle 
about  his  den  and  had  planted  an  iron  nail  in  the  midst 
of  it,  and  when  any  one  ventured  nigh  to  disturb  his 
meditations,  he  struck  the  nail  with  a  heavy  hammer, 
whereupon  the  intruder  would  become  rooted  to  the  spot, 
as  long  as  Jehiel  wished.  None  had  ever  beheld  the 
wonderful  lamp  that  shone  without  being  kindled,  in  his 
sanctuary. 

At  last,  the  report  of  the  Rabbi's  wizardry  reached 
the  ears  of  the  King.  Determined  to  see  this  miracle  for 
himself,  he  set  out  with  a  large  retinue,  and  was  soon 
knocking  at  Jehiel^s  gate.  Roused  from  his  revery  by 
the  unusual  summons,  the  Rabbi  seized  his  iron  hammer 


and  gave  the  nail  he  had  planted  a  sounding  blow.  To 
his  amazement,  it  leaped  up  from  the  ground,  instead  of 
sinking  deeper.  Then  he  knew  that  it  was  the  King 
who  desired  admittance.  Bowing  profoundly,  after  he 
had  released  the  latch,  he  humbly  besought  his  monarch's 
pardon.  Tempting  dishes  and  costly  wines  were  placed 
before  his  guest,  and  he  was  graciously  reassured  as  to 
the  purpose  of  the  visit.  Then  the  King  rose,  looked 
about  the  meagerly  furnished  room,  which  had  no  other 
ornaments  save  scrolls  and  parchments,  and  paused,  as 
if  by  accident,  before  the  lamp,  which  gleamed  with  a 
strange  brilliance. 

"How  now  ?"  cried  he.  "Is  this  the  magic  light  whereof 
my  people  speak?  Tell  me.  Rabbi,  what  makes  it  glow 
so  brightly,  seeing  that  there  be  neither  oil  nor  substance 
to  feed  it !  By  what  subtle  art  does  it  burn  ?  Is  this  the 
skill  of  thy  Cabbala?" 

"Nay,  sire,"  gently  replied  the  Rabbi.  "There  is  no 
magic  here.  I  have  but  followed  the  lead  of  nature.  In 
place  of  oil  for  fuel,  I  have  but  a  shining  stone.  It 
throws  off  luminous  rays,  by  the  light  of  which  I  read 
my  ancient  books." 

"If  that  be  true,"  exclaimed  the  King,  delighted  and 
surprised,  "thy  place  is  in  the  palace,  by  my  side." 

And  thus  Rabbi  Jehiel  became  the  King's  Counsellor. 

So  runs  the  story,  one  of  the  many  quaint  legends  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  handed  down  by  Gedalyah  Ibn 
Yahya,  the  sixteenth  century  chronicler,  in  his  cele- 
brated ''Chain  of  Tradition/' 


We  shall  not  attempt  to  prove  the  seductive  theory 
that  here  we  have  an  unexpected  reference  to  radium, 
but  rather,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  homilists, 
focus  its  light  upon  another  personage,  whose  royalty 
is  of  a  kindred  sort,  and  the  majesty  of  whose  fame  is 
at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  King  of  France,  of  whom 
the  legend  speaks. 

He  is  not  of  my  race  or  creed,  but  yet  of  distinguished 
lineage:  A  Prince  of  the  Church,  born  with  the  power 
to  command,  he  has  ruled  the  heart  of  the  American 
people  for  two  generations.  Scholar,  preacher,  teacher, 
man  of  God,  apostle  of  righteousness  and  tribune  of 
the  masses,  he  had  the  subtle  art  of  personal  magnetism. 
Not  with  nail  and  hammer,  as  the  ancient  Rabbi,  did  he 
sway  the  multitude!  He  held  dominion  with  the  glance 
of  his  eye,  the  lilt  of  his  speech,  the  irresistible  force 
of  his  passionate  logic,  the  ardor  of  his  faith,  the  tem- 
per of  his  conviction,  the  resources  of  his  great  courage. 

Modest  where  others  boasted,  proud  where  others 
cringed,  strong  where  others  weakened,  and  timid  where 
others  rushed  headlong,  he  was  ever  the  leader  and  not 
the  led — as  much  seer  as  king;  inspired  as  Samuel;  in 
presence,  like  Saul,  head  and  shoulders  above  the  popu- 
lace. And  when  rumor  assailed  him  of  misdoing  and 
cant,  he  knew  how  to  draw  an  intimate  circle  about  him- 
self, and  to  be  alone,  in  splendid  isolation  among  his 
books,  where  he  was  loved  and  trusted.  There,  where  no 
one  saw,  gleamed  the  perpetual  light  of  his  genius,  the 
emanations  of  which  those  that  knew  him  not  mistook 
for  craft  or  wizardry.     And  there  also,  he   who  came 


full-robed  in  majesty,  with  gracious  greeting  and  ready 
sympathy,  would  find  him  engrossed  in  his  parchments, 
eager  to  expound  the  truth  and  to  reveal  the  mystery 
of  the  light  that  shone  about  him  so  strangely  and 
vividly,  though  not  kindled  by  human  hands.  Verily, 
such  a,  man  was  destined  for  high  places,  to  be  the  con- 
sort and  counsellor  of  kings ! 

And  such  a  man  was  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  whose  birth  we  must  not  suffer 
to  pass  without  a  tribute  of  reverence  and  affection. 

We  need  not  here  recount  the  details  of  his  momentous 
career.  His  is  one  of  the  historic  lives — the  glory  and 
heritage  of  the  American  nation.  His  name  and  fame 
are  secure.  Imperishable  as  his  great  forbears  John 
Eliot,  Jonathan  Edwards,  Cotton  Mather,  William  E. 
Channing  and  Theodore  Parker,  who  had  all  served  the 
Lord  with  earnestness  and  zeal,  his  claims  to  distinction 
are  yet  more  various.  For  his  was  no  insular  spirit; 
to  toil  in  the  vineyard  of  his  own  distinctive  theology, 
reclaim  the  infidel  and  reconcile  the  dissenter,  did  not 
alone  constitute  his  mission.  His  was  a  noble  catholicity 
of  heart  and  mind,  knowing  no  barriers  of  convention 
or  creed,  scorning  all  controversy  and  compromise,  and 
rejoicing  in  the  sweet  fellowship  of  men  only  when  he 
could  meet  them  as  men,  on  the  same  level  of  sympathy 
and  understanding.  He  was,  indeed,  as  brave  a  fighter 
in  the  struggle  for  human  right  as  Channing,  and  one 
could  fittingly  say  of  him  what  Heine  so  eloquently 
said  of  himself,  in  Channing's  spirit:   "Place  a  sword 


on  my  tomb,  for  I  was  a  valiant  soldier  in  Humanity's 
War  for  Liberation!'' 

As  Jews,  also,  now  that  we  have  paid  homage,  as 
Americans,  to  Beecher,  the  patriot  and  prophet,  we  owe 
a  debt  of  gratitude  which  we  can  not  well  repay.  For 
what  great  American  has  shown  a  spirit  more  tolerant, 
a  generosity  more  spontaneous,  and  a  friendly  regard 
more  sincere  and  cordial  than  that  evidenced  by  the 
"Sweet  Shepherd  of  Brooklyn"?  We  instinctively  felt 
that  we  could,  at  need,  turn  with  confident  faith  to  the 
preacher  of  Plymouth  Pulpit,  and  that  he  would  not 
fail  us.  And,  indeed,  when  the  iron  entered  our  souls, 
and  we  were  bleeding  from  a  cruel  wound,  it  was  his 
tender  hand  which  bound  up,  healed  and  caressed,  as 
we  knew  it  would.  It  was  on  June  24,  1877,  that  he 
delivered  the  now  memorable  sermon,  before  his  own 
congTCgation,  entitled,  "Jew  and  Gentile,"  called  forth 
by  the  cowardly  insult  suffered  by  a  distinguished  Jew 
and  his  family,  at  the  hands  of  a  hotel  keeper.  The 
notorious  incident  furnished  abundant  material  for  sen- 
sational headlines  in  the  daily  press  throughout  the 
country.  Feeling  ran  high,  and  while  here  and  there 
honest  indignation  and  rebuke  flared  up  like  a  flame, 
the  voice  of  the  mighty  was  not  heard  in  the  high  places. 
Robert  IngersoU  was  probably  the  only  eminent  layman 
who  uttered  a  vigorous  protest  against  this  flagrant 
violation  of  pei'sonal  privilege,  and  in  the  light  of  those 
happeningB  we  may  be  disposed  to  condone  his  literary 
vagaries,  notably  his  celebrated  expose  of  "The  Mis- 
takes of  Moses." 


In  this  connection,  it  is  interesting  to  recall,  at  least 
by  title,  a  few  of  the  many  controversial  tracts  bearing 
on  the  so-called  ''Saratoga  Scandal.'^  One,  by  H.  P.  C. 
Worthington,  issued  in  New  York,  in  1879,  has  the  edi- 
fying caption:  "Hell  for  the  Jews."  Another,  writ- 
ten by  Herbert  N.  Eaton,  at  about  the  same  time,  reads : 
"An  Hour  With  the  American  Hebrew."  The  au- 
thor breaks  a  lance  on  behalf  of  the  Jews,  and  quotes 
some  of  the  most  pointed  paragraphs  from  Beecher's 
Sermon. 

The  efforts  of  Jewish  apologetes,  as  exemplified  by  two 
other  brochures,  in  my  own  collection,  are  more  to  be 
regarded  as  curiosities  of  literature  than  dignified  state- 
ments in  rebuttal.  One  is  by  an  anonymous  scribe,  who, 
in  a  dedication  "To  the  American  Press,  as  the  Exponent 
of  the  sense  of  the  American  People,  during  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  Seligman-Hilton  Affair,"  describes  him- 
self as  "a  Seligman  Jew."  It  is  a  pamphlet  of  16  pages, 
composed  in  imitation  of  Biblical  diction,  and  published 
in  1877,  m  New  York,  bearing  the  title:  "The  Sixth 
Book  op  Moses;  A  Satire  on  the  Seligman-Hilton 
Affair."  What  it  lacks  m  good  taste,  it  makes  up  in 
cleverness.  It  has,  besides,  the  merit  of  brevity  and 
directness  which  makes  it  almost  distinctive  in  contrast 
with  the  elaborate  invective  produced  by  Paul  Zunz,  who, 
styling  himself  a  "Naturalized  American  Citizen,"  dis- 
courses, with  the  aid  of  a  whole  arsenal  of  puns  and  pet- 
names,  and  much  offensive  buffoonery,  on  "The 
Crisis."  The  sub-title  reads:  "A  Celebrated  Case  at 
Manhattan  Beach.    First  Direct  Answer  and  Chal- 


LENGE  TO   CORBIN.      WaR  ON  MESSRS.   CORBIN,  HiLTON  & 

Co.  AND  THE  New  York  Herald.  An  Open  Letter  to 
THE  Public"  (Printed  for  the  author,  by  Jesse  Haney 
&  Co.,  1879). 

A  feature  of  this  tract  is  the  frontispiece,  showing  the 
Liberty  Bell,  composed  entirely  of  the  text  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  and  constituting  a  curiosity  in 
typography.  The  author  has  somehow  managed  to 
spread  himself  over  45  closely  printed  pages,  venting 
his  spleen  upon  Austin  Corbin,  who  appears  to  have 
been  the  chief  offender,  by  virtue  of  an  assault  on 
Jewish  character  perpetrated  in  the  New  York  Herald, 
July  22,  1879.  One  can  not  help  the  wistful  regret  that 
this  historic  episode  was  exploited  by  an  irresponsible 
tyro  in  letters,  whose  illustrious  namesake,  Leopold  Zunz, 
had  more  than  once  consecrated  his  caustic  wit  and 
matchless  logic  to  his  people's  defense,  and  whose  re- 
joinder on  such  an  occasion  would  have  become  an  im- 
perishable classic. 

It  was  a  Gentile,  a  Knight  Templar,  who  entered  the 
lists  for  Israel!  With  courage  high  and  spirit-sword 
keen,  no  foe  could  resist  him.  And  the  weapons  that 
he  chose  were  not  those  of  hate  and  violence.  Love  was 
his  shield  and  persuasion  was  his  lance.  And  is  there 
anything  in  the  armory  of  speech  more  effective  than 
the  voice  of  compassion,  the  sting  of  rebuke  and  the 
chastening  of  scorn? 

Of  the  distinguished  victim  of  race  prejudice,  this 
Christian   champion    of    Israel,    always    benignant    and 


serene,  and  strong  in  his  native  dignity,  has  only  this 
to  say : 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  the  acquaintance  of  the 
gentleman  whose  name  has  been  the  occasion  of  so 
much  excitement — Mr.  Seligman.  I  have  summered 
with  him,  with  his  honored  wife,  and  with  his  sons  and 
daughters;  and  I  have  learned  to  respect  and  love 
them.  During  weeks  and  months  I  was  with  them 
at  the  Twin  Mountain  House,  and  not  only  did  they 
behave  in  a  manner  becoming  Christian  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  but  they  behaved  in  a  manner  that  ought 
to  put  to  shame  many  Christian  ladies  and  gentle- 
men. They  were  my  helpers;  and  they  were  not  only 
present  at  the  Sunday  services  at  the  Twin  Moun- 
tain House,  but  they  were  present  at  the  daily  prayer 
meetings  on  week  days,  volunteering  services  of 
kindness.  I  learned  to  feel  that  they  were  my  dea- 
cons, and  that  in  the  ministration  of  Christian  ser- 
vice they  were  beyond  the  power  of  prejudice  and 
did  not  confine  themselves  to  the  limitations  which 
might  be  supposed  to  be  prescribed  by  their  race. 
Therefore,  when  I  heard  of  the  unnecessary  offense 
that  had  been  cast  upon  Mr.  Seligman,  I  felt  that  no 
other  person  could  have  been  singled  out  that  would 
have  brought  home  to  me  the  injustice  more  sensibly 
than  he.  With  this  statement  I  dismiss  the  personal 
matter. 

Nothing  in  all  this  of  invective,  scorn  or  satire.  The 
accomplished  preacher  of  Plymouth  Pulpit  used  no  death- 
dealing  darts  to  reach  the  heart  of  his  hearers.  He 
aimed  with  the  arrow  of  artless  truth,  and  straightway  it 
sped  to  the  mark. 

With  a  singularly  appropriate  text  from  Acts  xix., 
34,  and  the  Seligman  incident  as  illustrative  parable,  he 
builds  up  a  Sermon  on  the  Debt  Humanity  owes  to  the 
Jew,  which  will  always  rank  as  a  model  of  literary  style 


and  sound  reasoning.  We  have  here  no  patronizing 
eulogy,  no  conciliating  rhetoric.  The  stately  phrases 
file  by  like  a  great  white  army,  but  there  is  no  waving  of 
crimson  banners,  nor  the  blare  of  trumpets.  Witness 
this  lofty  period: 

They  also  gave  to  the  world,  by  their  ancient 
economy,  a  religion  whose  genius  was  the  develop- 
ment of  manhood.  ...  It  did  not  expend  itself 
in  lyrics  and  prayers  and  worship.  It  descended  to 
the  character  of  men,  and  sought  first  and  above  all 
other  faiths  of  that  age,  to  develop  manhood.  . 
It  bred  a  race  of  men  who  put  into  the  building  of 
themselves  the  attributes  of  truth,  of  justice,  of 
humanity,  of  morality,  of  gentleness  and  of  humil- 
ity. It  reared  men  who  had  no  equals,  and  with 
whom  there  was  nothing  that  could  compare  in  their 
own  time.  The  Greeks  built  better  temples  than 
the  Hebrews;  but  though  the  Hebrew  hand  never 
carved  a  marble,  it  did  better — it  carved  men. 

All  this  is  said  in  perfect  sincerity  and  reverence, 
with  the  passionate  fervor  of  a  Heine,  from  whom,  in- 
deed, the  last  sentence  appears  to  have  been  quite  un- 
consciously borrowed.  No  finer  tribute  to  the  wisdom 
of  Mosaic  legislation  has  ever  been  penned,  save  pos- 
sibly by  his  own  sister,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  whose 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  has  long  been  accessible  to  Jewish 
readers,  unacquainted  with  the  original,  in  a  Hebrew 
and  Yiddish  version. 

In  a  remarkable  essay  on  ''Moses  and  his  Laws,"  con- 
tributed to  the  Christian  Union,  a  weekly  journal, 
undenominational  in  scope,  then  edited  by  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  and  Lyman  Abbott,  occurs  the  following  passage : 


The  strongest  impulse  In  the  character  of  Moses 
appears  to  have  been  that  of  protective  justice,  more 
particularly  with  regard  to  the  helpless  and  down- 
trodden classes.  The  laws  of  Moses,  if  carefully 
examined,  are  a  perfect  phenomenon;  an  exception  to 
the  laws  of  other  ancient  or  modern  nations,  in  the 
care  they  exercised  over  women,  widows,  orphans, 
paupers,  foreigners,  servants  and  dumb  animals.  No 
so-called  Christian  nation  but  could  advantageously 
take  a  lesson  in  legislation  from  the  laws  of  Moses. 
There  is  a  plaintive,  pathetic  spirit  of  compassion  in 
the  very  language  in  which  the  laws  in  favor  of  the 
helpless  and  suffering  are  expressed  that  it  seems 
must  have  been  learned  only  of  superhuman  tender- 
ness. Not  the  gentlest  words  of  Jesus  are  more 
compassionate  in  their  spirit  than  many  of  these 
laws  of  Moses,  Delivered  in  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
they  certainly  are  so  unlike  the  wisdom  of  that  bar- 
barous age  as  to  justify  of  them  to  Him  Who  is  Love. 

And  in  the  same  lofty  strain,  contrasting  the  Jewish 
ideal  with  the  Christian,  in  the  striving  for  perfection, 
her  great  brother  writes : 

But  this  Jewish  people  set  the  example  by  their 
religion,  which  led  men  to  seek  manhood  as  the  chief 
thing  under  all  circumstances — a  larger,  broader, 
nobler,  diviner  manhood  than  ever  the  Gentiles 
dreamed  of. 

But  we  need  not  furnish  additional  extracts  from  this 
brilliant  address.  It  is  a  human  document  of  uncommon 
interest  to  Jew  and  Gentile  alike.  As  it  is  no  longer 
available  in  separate  form,  and  has  not  been  included  in 
any  collection  of  his  sermons,  we  believe  that  we  are 
rendering  a  distinct  service  by  reproducing  it  in  full,  as 
an  APPENDIX  to  this  paper. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  occasion  which  called  forth  his 
sympathy  for  Israel.    With  the  promulgation  of  the  so- 

14 


called  Ignatieff  By-Laws  in  Rassia,  when  the  persecu- 
tion of  our  unfortunate  brethren  drove  so  many  of  them 
to  our  shores,  began  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can Judaism.  It  was  again  Beecher  who  raised  his  voice 
on  their  behalf,  commending  our  liberal  Immigration 
Laws,  and  admonishing  the  American  nation  to  welcome 
these  refugees,  and  not  to  reject  them  as  aliens.  With 
fine  discrimination  and  foresight  he  recognized  the  value 
of  these  exiles  as  an  essential  element  in  American  citi- 
zenship. And  who  will  deny  that  his  prophecy  has  not 
been  fulfilled? 

And  again,  when  one  of  the  leading  congregations  in 
the  United  States  met  in  solemn  assembly  to  celebrate 
the  centennial  birthday  of  the  world's  greatest  Jewish 
philanthropist,  it  was  Beecher  who  joined  hands  with 
the  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Camp  and  Rabbi  Gustav  Gottheil, 
in  that  splendid  service  of  fellowship  and  brotherly  love. 
And  it  deserves  to  be  recorded  that  he  left  his  own  flock 
on  that  memorable  Sunday,  to  pay  homage  to  the  fair 
name  of  Moses  Montefiore.  From  his  eloquent  tribute, 
likewise  subjoined  to  this  paper,  that  we  may  have  a 
complete  record  of  his  relations  to  us,  we  shall  here 
quote  but  the  concluding  paragraph : 

And  I  would  to  God  that  this  man  might  not  be 
the  only  man  of  our  age.  If  Judaism  is  to  prevail 
— and  may  God  speed  it — let  it  prevail  by  bringing 
forth  such  heroes  of  goodness,  and  then  all  the  world 
shall  worship  with  unity  and  mutual  confidence,  and 
give  glory  to  God.  No  matter  in  what  candlestick 
the  candle  stands;  it  may  be  of  lead,  or  iron,  of  gold, 
or  one  studded  with  precious  stones.  It  is  the  candle 
which  signifies.     No  matter  in  what  church  you  wor- 

15 


ship;  no  matter  to  what  sect  you  belong-;  no  matter 
in  what  belief  you  are  fixed,  it  is  the  living  heroic 
life,  the  bounty  of  a  rich  heart  that  is  the  candle, 
giving  light  in  every  house  and  for  all   time. 

In  these  last  lines  the  great  preacher  wrote  his  own 
epitaph.  His  was,  indeed,  the  heroic  life  and  the  bounty 
of  a  rich  heart,  and  the  candle  of  which  he  speaks,  like 
the  Rabbi's  lamp  in  the  story,  is  that  mysterious  and 
unfaltering  faith  in  human  goodness,  the  glow  of  which 
has  brought  warmth,  courage  and  cheer  to  many  troubled 
hearts. 

The  crowning  act  of  Beecher's  service  of  love  for 
Israel  was  his  ardent  advocacy  of  Oscar  S.  Straus  for 
the  Turkish  Embassy.  During  the  Presidential  Cam- 
paign of  1884,  Mr.  Straus  was  Secretary  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Merchants'  and  Business  Men's 
organization  which  supported  the  Democratic  nominee. 
His  nomination  for  the  Ottoman  post  was  wholly  unex- 
pected, as  it  was  unsought.  It  was  brought  about  by  no 
political  influence,  but  solely  by  the  spontaneous  ef- 
forts of  many  leading  merchants,  and  was  heartily  en- 
dorsed by  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. Among  those  most  zealous  on  his  behalf  was 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  who,  in  a  letter  to  President 
Cleveland,  pressed  his  candidacy  in  the  following  terms: 

It  is  because  he  is  a  Jew  that  I  would  urge  his 
appointment,  as  a  fit  recognition  of  this  remarkable 
people,  who  are  becoming  large  contributors  to 
American  prosperity,  and  whose  intelligence,  moral- 
ity and  large  liberality  in  all  public  measures  for 
the  welfare  of  society  deserve  and  should  receive 
from  the  hands  of  the  government  some  such  recog- 

16 


nltion.  Is  it  not  also  a  duty  to  set  forth  in  this 
quiet  but  effectual  method  the  genius  of  American 
government,  which  has  under  its  fostering  care  peo- 
ple of  all  civilized  nations,  and  which  treats  them 
without  regard  to  civil  or  religious  race  peculiari- 
ties as  common  citizens?  We  send  Danes  to  Den- 
mark, Germans  to  Germany;  we  reject  no  man  be- 
cause he  is  a  Frenchman,  Why  should  we  not  make 
a  crowning  testimony  to  the  genius  of  our  people  by 
sending  a  Hebrew  to  Turkey?  The  ignorance  and 
superstition  of  mediaeval  Europe  may  account  for 
the  prejudices  of  that  dark  age.  But  how  a  Christian 
in  our  day  can  turn  from  a  Jew,  I  cannot  imagine. 
Christianity  itself  suckled  at  the  bosom  of  Judaism; 
our  roots  are  in  the  Old  Testament.  We  are  Jews 
ourselves  gone  to  blossom  and  fruit.  Christianity 
is  Judaism  in  evolution,  and  it  would  seem  strange 
for  the  seed  to  turn  against  the  stock  on  which  it 
was  grown. — (See  Isaac  Markens,  "The  Hebrews  in 
America,"  New  York,  1888,  pg.   187.) 

With  such  evidence  before  him.  no  one  can  doubt  his 
deep-rooted  loyalty  to  the  people,  whose  champion  he 
had  become,  unbidden,  at  a  time  when  its  need  was 
greatest.  Verily,  as  the  good  Book  says,  "By  their 
works  shall  ye  know  them!" 

Henry  "Ward  Beecher  passed  away  full  of  years  and 
honors  on  the  eighth  of  March,  1887,  revered  and  beloved 
by  all. 

At  the  Sixth  Conference  of  the  Jewish  Ministers' 
Association,  held  April  25,  of  the  same  year,  at  one  of 
the  Synagogues  in  New  York  City,  the  following  Resolu- 
tions of  Regret  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Since  our  last  meeting.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the 
Illustrious  teacher,  the  world-famed  orator,  patriot 
and  humanitarian,  has  closed  his  unexampled  career 
and  has  been  gathered  to  his  fathers.     We.  therefore. 

17 


the  Jewish  ministers  in  conference  assembled,  desire 
to  inscribe  upon  the  records  of  this  association,  our 
deep-felt  sympathy  and  our  sorrow  over  the  great 
loss  which  we,  in  common  with  our  fellow  citizens, 
have  sustained  in  the  death  of  the  venerable  and 
beloved  patriarch  of  Brooklyn. 

We  hereby  extend  to  the  widow  and  family  of 
the  late  pastor  of  Plymouth  Church,  and  also  to  the 
bereaved  congregation,  our  profound  sympathy  and 
condolence,  and  we  address  to  them  the  words  of 
scripture:  "The  Rock,  perfect  are  His  doings,  just 
are  all  His  ways;  who  can  say  to  Him  what  doest 
Thou?" 

We  recognize  that  we  have  lost  in  Mr,  Beecher 
a  great  co-laborer  in  the  field  of  religion,  a  religious 
teacher  who  proclaimed  "God,  the  Merciful  and  Gra- 
cious, abundant  in  Goodness  and  Truth,"  and  who 
always  sought  to  inspire  his  hearers  with  the  teach- 
ings of  brotherly  love. 

We  hereby  acknowledge  that  in  the  galaxy  of 
champions  of  liberty,  equality  and  justice,  of  reli- 
gious toleration,  enlightenment  and  advancement, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  one  of  the  brightest  stars 
of  our   century. 

We  remember  the  many  inestimable  services 
which  he  rendered  to  his  country  and  mankind  at 
large  by  his  fervid  eloquence,  his  indomitable  cour- 
age, his  deep  sense  of  justice  and  his  sympathetic 
heart.  We  pay  homage  to  his  revered  memory  and 
most  gratefully  acknowledge  how  eloquently  he 
pleaded  the  cause  of  the  Jewish  people  whenever 
envy,  prejudice  or  fanaticism  raised  its  head.  And 
among  illustrious  non-Israelites  like  Doellinger, 
Franz  Delitzsch,  Virchow  and  others,  who  were  de- 
fenders of  our  race,  the  name  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
will  be  ever  cherished  as  a  true  "Oheb  Yisrael" 
(Lover  of  Israel),  and  of  him  we  may  surely  say, 
"Zecher  Tsaddik  Leev'rocho," — the  Memory  of  the 
Righteous  is  for  a  Blessing. 

Be  it  therefore  resolved,  that  the  foregoing  reso- 
lutions be  given  to  the  press  for  publication  and 
copies  be  forwarded  to  Mrs.  Beecher  and  to  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  Plymouth  Church.  —  (Jewish 
Conference  Papers  .  .  of  the  Jewish  Ministers 
Association  of  America,  New  York,  1888,  pgs.  61-62.) 

For  once,  Jew  and  Gentile  were  united  by  the  bond  of 
a  common  grief.    The  cry  of  desolation  went  up  in  Zion. 

18 


The  House  of  Israel  mourned  bitterly  for  the  man,  who, 
like  an  atoning  priest,  carried  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  in  his  heart. 

"Speak  amiably  with  Jerusalem"  was  his  motto.  And 
today,  as  we  kindle  the  memorial  light,  to  solemnize  and 
consecrate  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth, 
may  it  glimmer  and  glow,  as  the  Rabbi's  lamp  in  the 
story,  to  be  a  beacon  for  Israel  and  all  mankind,  unto 
future  generations! 


Appendix  I. 

Beecher's     Celebrated    Sermon, 

**Jew  and  Gentile"   Preached  at 

Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 

June  24.  1877 

"But  when  they  knew  that  he  was  a  Jew,  all  with  one  voice  about 
the  space  of  two  hours  cried  out,  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." 
—Acts  xixs34. 


HIS  was  a  terrific  tumult  raised  inEphesus  by 
a  merchant.     When  an  attempt  was  made  on 

Tthe  part  of  those  who  were  aggrieved  by  the 
riot  that  took  place  to  defend  themselves  by 
exposing  their  principles  and  their  processes, 
the  mob  forbade  them  to  speak.  How  far 
the  world  has  grown  since  that  time  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  when  in  our  day  a  merchant 
attempts  to  hold  up  to  shame  and  disgrace 
men  that  are  unoffending,  there  is  no  riot  and 
no  mob,  but  for  the  space,  not  of  two  hours, 
but  of  two  days  (which  in  New  York  is  an 
age  for  one  thing  to  be  of  interest)  the  whole 
people  have  sympathized  with  those  that  are 
wronged. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  tonight  to  make  any 

personal  sermon.  Certainly,  if  I  had  the  dis- 
position to  do  it,  a  fairer  opportunity  never  could  present 
itself.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  the  acquaintance  of  the 
gentleman  whose  name  has  been  the  occasion  of  so  much 
excitement — Mr.  Seligman.  I  have  summered  with  his 
family  for  several  years.  I  am  acquainted  with  him,  with 
his  honored  wife,  and  with  his  sons  and  daughters;  and  I 
have  learned  to  respect  and  love  them.  During  weeks  and 
months  I  was  with  them  at  the  Twin  Mountain  House; 
and  not  only  did  they  behave  in  a  manner  becoming  Chris- 


20 


tian  ladies  and  gentlemen,  but  they  behaved  in  a  manner 
that  ought  to  put  to  shame  many  Christian  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen. They  were  my  helpers;  and  they  were  not  only 
present  at  the  Sunday  services  at  the  Twin  Mountain 
House,  but  they  were  present  at  the  daily  prayer  meetings 
on  week  days,  volunteering  services  of  kindness.  I  learned 
to  feel  that  they  were  my  deacons,  and  that  in  the  minis- 
tration of  Christian  service  they  were  beyond  the  power  of 
prejudice  and  did  not  confine  themselves  to  the  limitations 
which  might  be  supposed  to  be  prescribed  by  their  race. 
Therefore,  when  I  heard  of  the  unnecessary  offense  that 
had  been  cast  upon  Mr.  Seligman,  I  felt  that  no  other  per- 
son could  have  been  singled  out  that  would  have  brought 
home  to  me  the  injustice  more  sensibly  than  he.  With 
this  statement  I  dismiss  the  personal  matter. 

There  are  about  seven  million  Jews  in  existence  in  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  They  are  living  in  almost  every 
land  under  the  sun.  They  excel  all  other  people  in  being 
despised.  There  is  not  another  race  or  people  that  is  in 
such  a  sense  a  benefactor  of  the  human  race  as  they  are, 
and  have  been.  There  is  not  another  people  under  the  sun 
that  is  treated  so  like  despicable  miscreants  as  they  are, 
and  have  been.  For  two  thousand  years  they  have  experi- 
enced hatred  and  contempt  and  persecution.  They  are  an 
extraordinary  race  by  their  faults,  by  their  virtues,  and  by 
their  long  experience.  They  have  been  twined  in  the  his- 
tory of  every  nation,  oriental  or  occidental,  ancient  or 
modern;  and  yet  they  have  never  lost  their  race  distinc- 
tions. They  have  mingled,  but  not  "mixed,"  with  the 
nations  which  held  them. 

From  the  Hebrews  the  world  has  received  a  treasure  of 
benefit  such  as  no  other  people  has  ever  conferred  upon 
mankind;  and  those  things  in  which  we  count  ourselves 
most  advanced,  and  which  we  boast  as  being  blessings 
which  we  are  conferring  upon  the  nascent  nations  of  our 
times,  were  derived  as  seed-corn  from  this  notable  people; 
and  we  are  but  raising  harvests  of  that  which  they  raised 
three  thousand  years  ago. 

"In  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 

That  was  promised  to  Abraham,  and  it  has  been  ful- 
filled to  the  letter;  for  every  civilized  nation  on  the  globe 
is  today,  if  it  would  understand  the  source  of  its  benefits, 
blessed  in  the  descendants  of  Abraham.     Those  heroic  peo- 

21 


pie  stand  pre-eminent  as  the  unrecognized  benefactors  of 
the  human  race.  If  any  people  ever  lived  whose  faults 
might  be  condoned  in  consideration  of  their  invaluable 
service  to  religion  and  to  civilization,  it  is  the  Hebrews. 
If  any  people  ever  had  a  full  measure  of  every  form  and 
degree  of  injustice  meted  out  to  them,  it  is  the  Hebrews. 

Happily,  in  all  the  world  the  moral  sense  of  mankind 
is  checking  the  indignities  and  correcting  the  prejudices 
which  for  four  thousand  years  have  been  raining  upon  the 
heads  of  this  much-wronged  people.  Now  and  then  a  flash 
of  the  old  fire  breaks  out,  such  as  we  have  recently  seen, 
but  it  is  transient,  it  is  feeble,  and  it  serves  to  show  how 
weak  the  malign  elements  in  civilization  are,  and  how  much 
generosity  and  justice  are  infused  into  the  popular  feelings. 

Let  us  look  at  the  contributions  which  have  been  made 
to  the  world's  stock  in  civilization  by  the  Hebrews.  It 
may  surprise  some  to  be  told  that  commonwealth,  as  we 
understand  it  in  republican  governments,  is  unquestion- 
ably of  the  desert,  and  that  our  institutions  sprang  from 
the  loins  of  Moses'  mind;  but  it  is  true  that  he  reared,  in 
his  retirement  and  relative  obscurity,  the  pillars — or,  at 
any  rate,  the  foundations  on  which  we  are  rearing  the  pil- 
lars and  the  superstructure.  The  commonwealth  of  the 
Israelites  contained  in  it  the  seeds  of  all  subsequent  com- 
monwealths. 

The  people  that  most  saturate  themselves  with  the 
whole  economy  of  the  Old  Testament  are  the  people  among 
whom  popular  liberty  is  most  likely  to  be  developed;  for, 
although  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament  give  to  man 
in  the  ideal  such  an  elevation  as  that  wrong  toward  him 
becomes  an  indignity  toward  God,  yet  the  working  forms 
of  political  institutions  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
popular  liberty  and  popular  right  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Old  Testament  rather  than  in  the  New.  An  appeal  to  the 
people  on  all  great  questions  of  polity;  the  educating  all 
the  people  to  have  a  public  sentiment  about  their  own 
affairs;  the  attempt  to  conduct  a  government,  whether  by 
prophet,  by  priest,  or  by  king,  for  the  benefit  of  the  peo- 
ple themselves — these  fundamental  elements  belonged,  and 
I  think  belonged  first,  to  the  Hebrew  commonwealth.  The 
more  one  studies  the  genius  of  legislation  in  the  earlier 
periods  of  the  national  existence  of  the  Hebrews,  the  more 
he  will  have  reason  to  perceive  that  we  are  deriving,  as  It 

22 


were,  the  very  nourishment  of  our  public  life  from  those 
remote  times,  and  that  we  are  indebted  to  this  people  for 
those  very  things  which  make  us  able  to  despise  anybody 
or  anything. 

Closely  allied  to  the  organization  of  government,  and 
indeed  precedent  to  it,  as  the  very  condition  of  successful 
and  continuous  government,  is  the  household.  Now,  the 
family  emerged  from  barbaric  foVms  earlier  among  the 
Hebrews  than  among  any  other  people,  and  passed  into 
that  condition  which  has  enabled  it  to  perpetuate  itself. 
For  although,  according  to  the  teaching  of  our  Master, 
Moses  permitted  polygamy,  it  was  only  by  sufferance  and 
on  conditions  that  would  surely  extinguish  it,  and  that  did 
extinguish  it.  So  it  may  be  said  that,  in  spite  of  the 
patriarchal  example  of  early  times  and  later  times,  the 
great  body  of  common  people  among  the  Hebrews  were 
brought  up  in  the  spirit  of  monogamy,  and  the  household 
was  constituted  by  the*  love  of  one  man  to  one  woman.  In 
the  rearing  and  governing  of  a  family  of  children  the 
household  was  a  great  school  of  all  virtue  and  all  integ- 
rity. If  there  be  one  thing  that  has  been  striking  in  the 
economy  of  the  Hebrews  from  the  ancient  day  it  is  their 
care  of  their  children;  the  instruction  that  they  gave  to 
them;  their  guidance  of  them  in  their  rising  up  and  sitting 
down,  their  going  out  and  coming  in.  Their  great  aim  was 
to  instruct  their  children  in  a  knowledge  of  their  own 
institutions;  in  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  their  people; 
and  in  a  knowledge  of  those  ordinances  of  God  which  had 
made  that  history  celebrated.  On  no  other  point  was  there 
so  much  urgency  in  the  instruction  of  their  children  as 
on  that  of  character;  and  in  no  other  nation  were  children 
ever  reared  with  more  care.  That  feature  was  continued 
down  through  all  the  mediaeval  darkness,  and  is  charac- 
teristic in  Jewish  households  to  this  very  hour.  In  intel- 
ligence, in  home  life,  in  purity,  in  exaltation  of  sentiment, 
and  in  extraordinary  care  in  the  teaching  of  children,  there 
are  not  to  be  found  in  the  palmiest  communities  of  the 
best  Christian  households  those  that  surpass  the  best  fam- 
ilies of  Jews  at  this  time.  We  have  borrowed  their  exam- 
ple, and  are  rearing  our  children  after  the  pattern  and 
inspiration  of  the  Jewish  household,  as  it  has  existed  from 
the  days  of  Moses  onward. 

23 


I  cannot  fail  to  point  out,  too,  how,  in  that  oriental  land, 

and  in  that  early  day,  the  virtue  of  industry,  of  personal 
independence,  of  work,  was  understood  and  enforced.  Dur- 
ing the  time  when  Plato  declared  that  in  his  ideal  republic 
there  should  be  no  mechanics;  during  that  long  interme- 
diate period  when  to  be  a  working  man  was  to  be  shut  out 
from  all  hope  of  honor  and  elevation  in  society;  during 
the  times  when  monarchy  and  aristocracy  frowned  upon 
labor;  clear  down  to  the  day  when,  contrary  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  our  institutions  and  the  design  of 
our  fathers,  slavery  in  this  land  made  work  dishonorable, 
and  was  eating  out  the  inner  life  of  it;  from  four  thousand 
years  ago  down  to  this  day — work  has  been  honorable  in 
the  Jewish  household;  and  that  motto,  that  proverb  stands, 
which  stood  at  that  early  period:  "He  who  brings  his 
child  up  without  a  trade  brings  him  up  to  be  a  thief." 
On  that  principle  the  children  of  the  richest  Jews,  of  Jews 
in  the  highest  station,  were  taught  how  to  maintain  them- 
selves by  their  own  hands  and  by  their  own  industry.  The 
making  of  work  honorable  is  one  of  the  boons  which  God 
has  given  to  the  human  race  through  this  remarkable 
people. 

Then  we  are  to  take  notice  how  in  the  Jewish  nation, 
from  the  very  earliest  day,  woman  took  that  position  to 
which  she  has  been  coming  for  two  thousand  years  since 
through  the  inspirations  of  Christianity.  While  all  around 
them,  in  the  barbaric  East,  woman  was  the  degraded 
object  of  man's  lust,  or  of  his  convenience  as  the  drudge 
of  the  household,  at  that  very  time  the  Jewish  institutions 
were  ministered  to  by  priestesses;  by  women  of  singular 
virtue  and  sagacity  and  eminence.  In  Greece  a  woman  was 
not  even  permitted  to  go  to  the  door  to  greet  her  husband 
or  son  as  he  came  from  the  battlefield.  She  w£is  not 
allowed  to  know  music  or  poetry  or  philosophy,  if  she 
would  be  virtuous.  There  were  women  in  Greece  who  were 
educated  to  all  the  embellishments  and  arts  of  life;  edu- 
cation in  Greece  among  women  was  given  with  a  large 
hand,  and  they  were  educated  in  everything  that  we  con- 
sider today  as  most  befitting  the  noblest  women;  but  alas! 
no  woman  was  so  Instructed  unless  she  was  to  be  a  cour- 
tesan. If  a  woman  was  to  be  a  mother,  and  a  woman  hon- 
ored for  domestic  virtue,  she  must  be  ignorant,  and  must 
not    even    show    her    face    in    a   public    assembly,    and    she 

24 


must  not  appear  unveiled  in  the  streets.  But  while  such 
was  the  law  in  intellectual  and  artistic  Greece,  in  Pales- 
tine the  mother,  the  wife  or  the  daughter  with  unashamed 
and  unveiled  face  might  look  upon  any  man;  and  if  called 
to  any  function,  there  was  no  public  sentiment  and  no  law 
that  prevented  her  assuming  that  function.  Whatever  a 
woman  could  do  well,  and  was  called  of  God  by  inspira- 
tion to  do,  that  she  was  permitted  to  do;  and  she  stood 
honored  by  what  she  was.  That  invaluable  contribution  to 
humanity  we  derived  from  the  early  example  of  this  great 
people. 

They  also  gave  to  the  world,  by  their  ancient  economy, 
a  religion  whose  genius  was  the  development  of  manhood. 
In  other  words,  they  gave  to  the  world  an  ethical  religion, 
as  distinguished  from  a  worshiping  and  superstitious  reli- 
gion. Although  the  Jew  made  manifest  every  office  of 
devotion  and  reverence,  and  although  you  might  select 
from  the  Jewish  writers  saints  as  eminent  in  observances 
as  any  others;  yet  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of  religion 
among  the  Israelites  was  that  it  had  a  practical  drift  as 
regards  the  conduct  of  men.  It  did  not  expend  itself  in 
lyrics  and  prayers  and  worship.  It  descended  to  the  char- 
acter of  men,  and  sought  first,  and  above  all  other  faiths 
of  that  age,  to  develop  manhood.  For  the  whole  flow  of 
that  word  "righteousness"  in  the  Old  Testament  is  the 
equivalent  of  our  word  "manhood,"  in  modern  phrase,  and 
seeking  after  righteousness  was  the  distinctive  peculiarity 
of  the  Hebrew  religion.  It  bred  a  race  of  men  who  put 
into  the  building  of  themselves  the  attributes  of  truth,  of 
justice,  of  humanity,  of  morality,  of  gentleness  and  of 
humility.  It  reared  men  who  had  no  equals,  and  with 
whom  there  was  nothing  that  could  compare  in  their  own 
time.  The  Greeks  built  better  temples  than  the  Hebrews; 
but  though  the  Hebrew  hand  never  carved  a  marble,  it  did 
better — it  carved  men.  WTiile  the  Greeks  were  so  corrupt 
in  social  matters  that  they  had  not  moral  sense  enough  to 
hold  the  state  together;  while  their  national  life  was  per- 
petually breaking  down  under  the  stress  of  human  nature 
for  lack  of  manly  character;  while  they  were  making 
wondrous  pictures;  while  they  were  building  world-re- 
nowned temples;  while  they  were  carving  heroes  in  gold 
and  ivory  than  which  the  world  never  saw  greater,  and 
will   never  see  greater;   while  they   were  making  a   "simu- 

25 


lacrum"  of  mankind,  the  Hebrews  were  making  mankind — 
ttiey  were  making  man.  Such  was  the  very  drift  of  their 
religion.  And  the  apostle,  having  received  the  culture  of 
Greece  at  the  feet  of  his  great  teacher,  and  knowing  what 
it  meant,  declared  that  his  brethren  sought  after  righteous- 
ness, but  that  they  did  not  well  understand  what  were  the 
instruments  by  which  the  higher  development  of  manhood 
was  to  be  attained.  They  sought  to  develop  righteousness 
by  institutions;  but  Paul  says  that  no  race  of  people  ever 
did  or  ever  will,  merely  by  institutions,  develop  the  high- 
est form  of  character.  That  must  be  done  by  following  a 
living  example  under  a  heroic  inspiration. 

Christ  is  the  law.  That  is,  he  undertook  to  do  that 
which  the  whole  law  aimed  to  do,  but  which  through  the 
weakness  of  the  flesh  it  could  not  do.  He  came  making 
virtue  luminous,  and  interpreting  to  mankind  so  much  of 
the  divine  disposition  as  can  possibly  be  shown  in  the 
human  flesh,  by  making  possible  to  men  that  which  a 
man  longs,  prays,  yearns,  sighs  to  be,  and  then  helping 
them  to  come  to  it — namely,  to  "a  perfect  man;"  to  "the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ."  But  this 
Jewish  people  set  the  example,  by  their  religion,  which 
led  men  to  seek  manhood  as  the  chief  thing  under  all  cir- 
cumstances— a  larger,  broader,  nobler,  diviner  manhood 
than  ever  the  Gentiles  dreamed  of. 

The  moral  sense  of  mankind,  the  vivid  conception  of 
right  and  wrong  among  men,  sprang  from  the  training  of 
the  Jews.  Hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  has  been 
characteristic  of  the  Jew  from  an  early  age;  and  we  have 
derived  an  impulse  in  that  direction  from  his  writings  and 
from  his  example.  The  Greek  gave  to  the  world  aesthetic 
gifts.  Whatever  was  exquisite  in  beauty,  whatever  was 
fine  in  symmetry,  whatever  was  rare  in  proportion,  what- 
ever was  harmonious  in  art,  the  Greek  longed  for;  but  he 
never  longed  for  the  good.  The  Jew  was  deficient  in  the 
perception  of  the  beautiful  as  it  was  developed  in  matter; 
but  his  soul  was  all  aflame  with  a  conception  of  the  beau- 
tiful as  it  was  developed  in  the  mind;  and  he  sought  to 
create  in  man  inwardly  by  the  spirit  that  which  the  Greeks 
sought  to  create   in  him  outwardly  by  the  flesh. 

"As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brooks,   so  panteth   my 
soul  after  thee,  0  God." 

26 


In  all  the  literature  of  the  globe  you  cannot  find  another 
such  aspiration;  and  this  is  but  one  of  ten  thousand  of  the 
breathings  of  the  Jewish  mind  of  its  yearning  after  the 
divine. 

The  moral  literature,  too,  which  has  come  from  this 
people  has  been  a  treasure  to  the  world.  The  human  race 
has  fed  on  Homer,  on  Plato,  on  Aristotle,  on  Seneca,  on 
Cicero,  and  in  the  far  Orient  on  one  or  two  notable  authors; 
but  nowhere  has  there  been  such  food  for  the  inner  man 
as  in  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  in  the  lyrics  of  David  and 
his  school,  and  in  the  cry  of  those  great  solitary  statesmen, 
the  Hebrew  prophets,  who  were  the  masters  of  statesman- 
ship in   the  age  in  which  they  lived. 

But  to  us  and  to  all  Christendom  the  Hebrew  should  be 
held  sacred  for  that  gift  without  name  and  without  price, 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  "Of  whom  as  concern- 
ing the  flesh  Christ  came"  is  a  sentence  that  ought  to 
make  the  Israelites  sacred  to  us  from  association  and  from 
history,  if  from  nothing  else.  The  ideal  man  of  the  ages 
was  Jesus  Christ.  The  likeness  of  so  much  of  the  divine 
nature  as  can  dwell  in  human  flesh  was  Jesus  Christ. 
The  grandest  interpreter  of  the  Old  Testament  Scripture 
was  Jesus  Christ.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  but  an 
epitome  of  the  great  truths  which  had  been  wrought  out 
in  the  experience  and  observation  of  the  thousands  of 
years  of  God's  people  preceding.  Jesus  Christ  gathered 
them  together  and  brought  them  as  grain  in  a  granary  into 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  but  they  grew  in  a  thousand 
fields  dispersed  through  the  ages.  To  be  sure,  he  made 
them  more  noble  by  insphering  them  in  a  spiritual  light, 
and  showing  what  their  outcome  was,  and  was  to  be;  but 
they  were  the  Old  Testament  economies;  and  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  into  which  they  were  gathered,  comes  to  us 
not  simply  from  Jesus  Christ,  but  from  his  ancestors 
throughout  all   the  period  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth. 

But  if  one  turns  from  moral  functions  to  secular,  it 
may  be  said  that  no  people  ever  taught  the  world  such  a 
lesson  of  endurance,  of  indestructible  manhood,  under 
every  conceivable  oppression  and  wrong,  as  the  Jews  have. 
No  abuse  that  can  be  heaped  upon  man  has  been  spared 
from  the  head  of  this  persecuted  people.  From  the  days 
of  the  Roman  emperors  they  have  been  objects  of  cruelty 
in    every   part   of   the   civilized   world.      They   have    every- 

27 


where  been  denied  citizenship.  Everywhere  they  have  been 
denied  not  only  equal  rights,  but  the  commonest  rights  of 
humanity.  They  have  been  obliged  to  clothe  themselves 
so  that  their  very  garments  were  a  badge  of  contempt. 
They  have  been  shut  up  in  certain  territories.  They  have 
been  fleeced,  cheated,  persecuted  with  the  crudest  instru- 
ments of  wrong  by  those  who  sought  to  wrest  from  them 
their  supposed  riches.  They  have  been  emptied  out  of 
countries  where  they  had  taken  up  their  abode.  For  in- 
stance, from  Spain  seventy  thousand  families  were  driven 
suddenly  into  exile,  not  more  than  one-fifth  of  them  sur- 
viving. That  cruel  exodus  was  repeated  time  and  time 
again  in  various  nations,  from  hundred  years  to  hundred 
years,  under  the  oppressions  of  superstitious  peoples.  Did 
a  plague  break  out  in  Hungary?  The  Jews  had  poisoned 
the  people,  and  a  mob  wreaked  vengeance  upon  their  house- 
holds. Was  there  black  death  in  Germany?  The  whole 
country  was  in  cruel  riot  to  avenge  their  sufferings  on  the 
persecuted  Jews. 

But  this  remarkable  race,  though  fined,  robbed,  treated 
with  the  utmost  injustice  and  cruelty,  and  kicked  out  from 
their  abiding  place  again  and  again,  they  could  not  be 
destroyed.  Hope  sprang  immorta.l  in  their  soul.  With 
tenacity,  with  toughness,  with  an  ineradicable  courage, 
with  a  persistence  in  their  own  faith,  and  with  a  trust  in 
their  own  national  stock,  they  have  marched  through  I 
know  not  how  many  generations  of  persecution.  The  legend 
of  "The  Wandering  Jew"  is  true — not  of  any  one  person, 
but  of  a  people.  It  was  the  nation  of  the  Jews  that  was 
the  "Wandering  Jew;"  and  all  that  has  ever  been  dreamed 
by  poets  or  invented  by  the  imagination  of  the  miseries  of 
the  "Wandering  Jew"  has  been  fulfilled  more  than  four- 
fold upon  the  head  of  this  great  and  wonderful  race.  They 
have  never  sat  down  in  discouragement,  but  have  repaired 
again  and  again  and  again  their  wasted  fortunes,  and 
erected  schools  and  synagogues,  and  amassed  property, 
and  served  the  state,  and  wrought  for  manhood.  It  has 
been  the  very  genius  of  the  Hebrew  people  to  work  for 
the  welfare  of  mankind  by  working  for  their  own  wel- 
fare. All  their  struggles  for  existence,  and  all  their  con- 
flicts for  equal  rights,  have  done  much  to  produce  that 
spirit  of  toleration  which  is  found  throughout  the  civil- 
ized nations  of  the  globe.     They  fought  the  battle  of  lib- 

28 


erty  in  fighting  for  their  own  right  to  live.  The  conflict 
in  England  by  which  the  disfranchised  Jews  were  at  last 
permitted  to  have  a  name,  and  to  have  citizenship,  and 
the  rights  of  a  citizen  under  the  government,  was  one  of 
the  most  enlightening  and  strengthening  of  all  the  moral 
movements  in  your  time  and  mine.  And  that  which  took 
place  in  England  took  place  in  Germany,  in  Holland,  in 
Spain,  in  Portugal,  in  France,  in  Switzerland,  in  Hungary, 
and  in  Austria  generally.  The  Jews,  everywhere  perse- 
cuted, everywhere  bruised  and  crushed  in  the  root,  every- 
where disbranched,  everywhere  defoliated,  everywhere 
robbed  of  their  precious  fruit,  have  sprung  to  life  again 
like  the  mulberry  tree,  which  is  fed  upon  and  plucked  by 
the  silk-weaving  worm,  but  which,  though  stripped  of  one 
crop  of  leaves,  produces  another  and  another.  This  extra- 
ordinary people  have  set  an  example  to  humanity  of  in- 
domitable courage  in  the  endurance  of  whatever  men  can 
put  upon  them  and  yet  living  and  thriving.  If  ever  a  race 
was  heroic  this  race  has  been. 

In  its  long  and  dreary  way  the  indomitable  spirit  of 
this  great  people  has  not  flinched.  They  have  held  fast 
to  their  faith.  When  for  the  sake  of  saving  themselves 
they  were  outwardly  obliged  to  conform  to  a  cruel  reign- 
ing Christianity,  interiorly,  in  the  church,  in  the  sanctuary 
of  their  own  households,  they  were  faithful  to  the  reli- 
gion of  their  fathers.  And,  not  content  with  simply  their  , 
own  advancement,  they  have  in  almost  every  age  and  in 
almost  every  country  added  to  the  common  stock  of  knowl- 
edge and  civilization,  and  that  under  all  the  unfavorable 
conditions  of  which  I  have  spoken.  The  Jewish  philoso- 
phers have  stood  second  to  none.  The  Jewish  statesmen 
have  been  among  the  most  eminent  in  the  world.  Jewish 
teachers,  and  scholars,  and  literary  men,  and  scientists, 
and  artists  have  ranked  with  the  ablest  in  Europe,  and 
they  do  today.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  they  are  the 
genius  of  intelligence  and  administration  in  Europe;  but  I 
may  venture  to  say  that  they  are  second  to  no  others  in 
these  respects.  Today  in  music,  in  painting,  in  histrionic 
art,  in  finance,  and  in  generalship,  the  Hebrews  are  equal 
to  any  among  the  most  favored,  whether  in  Europe  or  in 
America.  Considering  their  opportunities,  they  are  cer- 
tainly giving  more  genius  to  statesmanship  and  adminis- 
tration and  finance  than  any  other  people. 


What  have  they,  then,  of  which  they  need  be  ashamed, 
in  a  Christian  republic  where  all  men  are  declared  to  be 
free  and  equal?  Of  what  has  this  oriental  nation  to  be 
ashamed  in  a  country  where  Christianity  has  breathed  a 
spirit  of  manhood?  Is  it  that  they  are  excessively  indus- 
trious? Let  the  Yankee  cast  the  first  stone.  Is  it  that 
they  are  inordinately  keen  in  bargaining?  Have  they  ever 
stolen  ten  millions  of  dollars  at  a  pinch  from  a  city?  Are 
our  courts  bailing  out  Jews,  or  compromising  with  Jews? 
Are  there  Jews  lying  in  our  jails,  and  waiting  for  mercy, 
and  dispossessing  themselves  slowly  of  the  enormous 
wealth  which  they  have  stolen?  You  cannot  find  one 
criminal  Jew  in  the  whole  catalogue.  It  is  said  that  the 
Jews  are  crafty  and  cunning,  and  sometimes  dishonest,  in 
their  dealings.  Ah!  what  a  phenomenon  dishonesty  must 
be  in  New  York!  Do  they  not  pay  their  debts  when  it  is 
inconvenient?  Hear  it,  O  ye  Yankees!  Was  there  ever 
any  such  thing  known  on  the  face  of  the  earth  before? 
Is  it  true  that  they  live  on  that  which  you  throw  away? 
What  a  miscreant  a  man  mvist  be  that  is  so  closely  eco- 
nomical! Is  it  true  that  they  can  make  money  where  you 
go  to  bankruptcy?  Shame  on  you! — not  on  them.  Is  it 
true  that  they  have  among  them  many  who  are  untrust- 
worthy? I  suppose  they  must  be  the  only  people  on  God's 
earth  any  portion  of  whom  are  not  trustworthy!  Now  I 
suppose  there  are  Jews  that  are  sometimes  tempted  of 
the  devil;  I  suppose  there  are  crafty  men  among  the 
Jews;  but  I  believe  that  for  their  numbers  there  are  fewer 
such  men  among  them  than  among  us,  and  that  of  men 
of  high  and  honorable  dealing  with  enormous  interests  at 
stake,  of  trustworthy  men  in  the  administration  of  affairs, 
they  have  more  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  than  our 
own  or  any  other  race  stock,  in  this  or  any  other  land. 

If,  then,  you  look  upon  their  genius,  upon  their  anti- 
quity, upon  their  eai^ly  and  continuing  services,  upon  the 
legacy  which  they  have  given  to  the  gentile  world,  upon 
their  fidelity  to  their  faith,  upon  their  heroism,  upon  their 
industry,  upon  their  enterprise,  and  upon  their  substantial 
integrity,  they  are  of  all  people  under  the  sun  the  last  that 
should  be  insulted,  either  by  retail  or  by  wholesale.  And 
if  in  all  the  world  you  had  sought  for  a  place  in  which  to 
base  an  insult  for  mere  race  you  could  not  have  found 
another   where   it   would   have  been   so   disreputable  as   in 


America,  where  the  race  spirit  is  opposed  to  our  funda- 
mental interpretation  of  religion  not  only,  but  of  mor- 
ality and  of  civic  economy.  But  of  all  places  in  America 
where  society  attempts  to  keep  its  garments  free  from 
contact  with  the  vulgar  people,  think  of  a  hotel;  and  of 
all  hotels  a  thousand-room  hotel  in  Saratoga!  Listen,  O 
ye  astonished  people:  where  for  fifty  years  North  and 
South  and  East  and  West  have  come  together,  and  been 
instructed,  sometimes  by  ministers  and  sometimes  by  Mor- 
risseys,  and  where  every  form  of  pleasurable  vice,  every 
sort  of  amusement,  everything  that  would  draw  custom, 
has  been  common — there,  in  Saratoga,  the  Corinth  of 
America,  in  a  hotel  designed  to  accommodate  two  thou- 
sand people,  it  seems  society  is  so  developed  that  it  will 
not  consent  to  go  unless  everybody  that  comes  is  fit  to 
associate  with  men  who  made  their  money  yesterday,  or  a 
few  years  ago,  selling  codfish!  What  is  society  in  Amer- 
ica? It  is  a  disposition  to  be  independent.  The  power  of 
a  man  to  take  care  of  himself  and  his  family  by  his  own 
wit  and  industry — that  makes  a  man  respectable  insofar 
as  economics  is  concerned;  and  it  is  not  in  good  taste  for 
a  man  that  inherits  all  his  money,  and  does  not  earn  a 
dollar  himself,  to  reproach  men  who  have  not  a  dollar 
that  they  did  not  earn  themselves.  Of  all  people  in  crea- 
tion the  Hebrews  least  deserve  the  ban,  the  finger  of  scorn, 
the  ostracism,  of  polite  society.  The  trouble  is,  men  have 
not  been  to  school  enough  to  learn  the  decency  which  be- 
longs to  the  instruction  of  the  Jews,  to  their  institutions, 
and   to   their   fundamental   ideas   of   manhood   and   religion. 

Are  these  people  aiding  or  are  they  quenching  civili- 
zation in  our  land?  Are  they  bearing  their  part  in  the 
advance  of  knowledge  in  America?  Are  they  educating 
their  children?  Are  they  publishing  books  and  newspapers? 
Are  they  opening  synagogues?  Are  they  the  corrupters  of 
morality?  Is  it  in  the  Jewish  family  that  the  monstrous 
spawn  is  bred  that  degrades  Christian  households?  It 
was  left  for  Christian  reformers  to  unloose  the  bands  and 
throw  open  the  door  to  every  foul  solicitation  and  every 
base  temptation  that  plays  about  every  household  in  the 
land.  Are  the  Jews  remiss  in  rearing  their  children  in  those 
elements  of  education  and  training  which  go  to  make  a 
character  distinguished  for  virtue,  integrity  and  manhood? 

Are  they  in  our  poor  houses?     In  which?     Are  they  In 

31 


our  jails?  Where?  Are  they  in  our  reformatories?  Point 
them  out.  Do  their  women  defile  our  streets?  You  cannot 
find  another  people  in  America  among  whom  the  social 
virtues  are  more  rigorously  taught  and  observed  than 
among  the  Israelites.  Exceptions  there  are,  but  their  char- 
acteristics are  such  as  I  have  represented  them  to  be. 
They  are  a  temperate  people,  and  we  are  a  drunken  people. 
They  are  a  virtuous  people,  and  we  largely  tend  to  be  a 
lascivious  people.  They  are  a  people  excessively  careful 
of  their  children,  and  there  is  a  great  laxity  among  us  in 
the  education  of  the  household.  We  may  well  take  lessons 
of  them.  They  were  the  schoolmasters  of  our  fathers, 
and  we  may  well  go  to  school  to  the  same  masters. 

They  are  becoming  land  owners  in  America,  by  reason 
of  the  liberty  and  toleration  which  reign  here;  and  as  land 
owners  those  very  peculiarities  which  made  them  offensive 
at  other  times  are  dropping  away  from  them.  There  can 
be  no  question  that  the  Jewish  race  stock,  if  it  be  suf- 
fered in  the  largest  spirit  of  true  Christianity  to  have  its 
way,  will  merge  with  the  American  stock.  During  all  the 
two  thousand  years  in  which  the  Jews  have  been  wander- 
ers on  the  globe,  persecuted  and  despised,  there  has  been 
no  inducement  for  them  to  invest  their  money  in  landed 
estates,  and  their  property  has  been  of  a  moveable  kind; 
but  they  are  now  buying  land  in  America;  and  I  tell  you 
the  land  that  a  people  stand  on  forms  them  more  than 
they  form  the  land  by  their  agriculture;  and  more  among 
us  than  anywhere  else  they  become  citizens.  They  come 
here  to  live  and  stay;  and  their  children  will  intermarry 
with  ours;  their  blood  will  flow  into  the  common  stream 
with  ours;  and  if  their  virtues  might  be  incorporated  with 
ours  it  would  be  of  unspeakable  advantage  to  ns.  Where 
else,  then,  is  prejudice  against  them  so  culpable  as  in 
our   land? 

Let  me  say,  in  closing,  that  our  brethren  and  fellow- 
citizens,  the  Jews,  should  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  too 
much  exercised  by  the  petty  slights  or  even  public  insults 
that  are  heaped  upon  them.  A  hero  may  be  annoyed  by 
a  mosquito;  but  to  put  on  his  whole  armor  and  call  on  all 
his  followers  to  join  him  in  making  war  on  an  insect 
would  be  beneath  his  dignity;  and  I  think  that  for  our 
friends,  the  Jews,  to  notice  in  any  special  manner  this 
indignity   which   they   have   received    will   be   to   place   too 

32 


much  Importance  upon  it.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  there 
will  be  no  public  assemblies  called,  no  resolutions  passed, 
no  more  importunate  letters  written,  no  recrimination,  no 
personalities.  We  are  fed  to  death  with  such  things  as 
these,  until  the  people  have  come  to  have  almost  a  butch- 
er's appetite.  So  let  us  banish,  and  let  us  exhort  those 
whom  we  are  proud  to  call  fellow  citizens  to  banish  wrath; 
and  may  they  recognize  that  their  position,  their  honors, 
all  things  that  are  sacred  to  them,  are,  in  this  country, 
such  as  they  shall  themselves  determine  them  to  be.  May 
they  understand  that  under  this  government  there  is  no 
place  to  which  they  may  aspire — no  sphere  of  finance,  no 
walk  in  literature,  no  avenue  to  honor,  no  field  of  art  or 
science — which  is  shut  to  them.  The  heaven  above  their 
head  is  not  more  free  to  everyone  of  them  than  all  the 
ways  of  men  in  this  land.  Let  them  be  composed,  and  not 
be  disturbed  by  injuries  which  are  but  the  faintest  echoes 
of  the  wrongs  which  were  inflicted  on  their  fathers  through 
unnumbered  generations.  If  their  fathers,  when  the  foot 
of  tyranny  was  placed  upon  their  necks,  when  they  were 
treated  to  the  flame  and  the  cord  and  the  ax,  when  they 
tasted  the  luxury  of  the  dungeon,  when  they  were  pelted 
with  all  manner  of  obloquy,  when  they  were  driven  hither 
and  thither  and  were  wanderers  up  and  down  the  earth,  in 
patience  possessed  themselves,  and  maintained  their  econ- 
omy, their  institutions  and  their  genius,  I  am  sure  their 
descendants  will  be  able,  under  this  slight  breath,  this 
white  frost,  this  momentary  flash  of  insult,  to  maintain 
their  genius,  their  households,  their  social  customs,  their 
citizenship  and  the  honors  which  their  fathers  achieved, 
and  of  which  they  are  showing  themselves  not  to  be  un- 
worthy in   this  nation   and  in   our  time. 


33 


Appendix  II. 
Beecher's  Address  on  Montefiore 


[From  "Addresses  delivered  at  the  Thanksgiving  Service  held  at 
Temple  Emanu-El,  New  York,  on  the  occasion  cf  Sir  Moses 
Montefiore,  Bart.,  completing  the  one-hundredth  year  v  ^  his  life, 
October    26.    1884."       (N.    Y..    pp.    7-12.)] 


account     it    a    great    honor    that    you    have 
thought  me  worthy  to  be  here  upon  such  an 

I  occasion,  and  my  presence  here  this  afternoon 

is  to  me  a  source  of  much  pleasure. 
The  sentiment  of  all  just  and  honorable 
men  who  fear  God  and  love  their  fellowmen 
goes  with  this  celebration.  The  distinguished 
citizen  of  the  world,  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  by 
his  long  life,  by  services  so  splendid  in  the 
way  of  humanity,  has  become  himself  a  text 
that  involves  largely  the  truths  both  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New.  Jew  and  Chris- 
tian alike  may  derive  from  his  example  and 
services  both  instruction  and  encouragement. 
There  is  no  thing  in  this  world  that  art 
can  achieve,  no  architecture,  no  sculpture,  no 
picture  that  is  so  beautiful  as  a  noble  living 
man.  For  although  it  may  be  the  work  of  Michael  Angelo, 
a  man  in  health  and  strength  and  serving  his  kind,  is  more 
stately  and  more  beautiful  than  any  statue  ever  thought 
of  or  created. 

It  is  the  living  man  and  not  the  simulation  of  man  In 
the  stone  that  should  command  admiration.  There  is 
nothing  in  all  the  madonnas  and  holy  families  of  Raphael 
that  can  compare  for  one  single  moment  with  the  mother 
and  the  children  in  the  household.  One  is  but  the  shadow; 
the  other  is  the  substance.  And  this  celebration  is  a  sign 
of  great  advancement  in  the  moral  feeling  of  the  world. 
Sir  Moses  Montefiore  is  a  stranger  and  a  foreigner  to  most 
of  the  people  who  will  celebrate  the  great  birthday  of  this 


34 


great  philanthropist,  and  who,  all  over  the  world  will 
gather  to  give  expression  to  this  gladness  in  his  continued 
life,  and  their  thanksgiving  for  what  he  has  been  able  to 
accomplish. 

It  certainly  is  a  great  thing.  God  has  brought  forward 
the  human  consciousness  and  feeling  to  such  a  point  that 
this  venerable  gentleman's  birthday  is  an  occasion  of  uni- 
versal jubilee. 

My  friends,  he  has  brought  to  unity  the  quarrelings. 
the  disgraceful  differences  of  all  the  Christian  sects  of  the 
world.  He  has  shown  that  goodness  is  orthodox  every- 
where and  always. 

Correctness  of  thinking  is  very  desirable.  But  the  men 
that  hate  each  other  and  quarrel  on  the  ground  of  correct- 
ness of  thinking,  have  hardly  learned  the  first  elements 
of  the  true  religion. 

Therefore  a  man  standing  in  the  firm  faith  of  the 
Israelites,  and  surrounded  by  Christians  divided  into  a 
hundred  different  sects,  commands  the  confidence  and  the 
love  of  them  all. 

The  world  has  changed.  The  world  is  changing.  The 
great  men  of  remote  antiquity  were  the  men  of  physical 
force,  courage,  audacity — the  men  that  soared  head  and 
shoulders  above  the  rest  of  men. 

They  are  somewhat  admired  yet,  but  they  are  slowly 
sinking  below  the  horizon.  Men  are  not  admired  as  war- 
riors, but  principally  when  their  conduct  is  for  the  exhi- 
bition of  principle  and  the  advancement  of  humanity.  But 
even  now,  a  soldier  patriot  is  not  admired  altogether  as  he 
was  in  the  days  gone  by.  We  have  come  to  an  era  in 
which  we  admire  the  statesman.  We  admire  the  artist. 
We  follow  the  inspiration  of  men  of  genius;  and  this  is 
unspeakably  higher  than  the  admiration  of  mere  physical 
gifts. 

We  are  drawing  near  to  the  very  sanctuary  of  admira- 
tion. The  day  has  gone  by  when  it  was  in  the  power  of 
the  body  or  even  in  the  gifts  of  the  intellect  or  of  genius 
to  command  universal  esteem.  Today  we  admire  a  man 
who  is  great  of  heart.  A  good  man  is  the  greatest  among 
men. 

If  his  goodness  is  spread  abroad;  if  he  have  the  means 
by  which  to  carry  out  goodness  on  a  large  scale,  the  day 
has   come  when   the  philanthropist  stands   for  the  highest 

35 


form  of  humanity.  And  in  tliis  achievement  you  have 
recorded  the  fruit  of  countless  ages  of  past  experience. 
It  is  the  right  fruit. 

Now,  we  are  glad,  not  simply  to  admire  the  philan- 
thropist. Sir  Moses  Montefiore;  we  are  glad  not  merely 
to  wonder  at  the  prolongation  of  such  a  life;  but  we  read 
in  him  a  lesson  of  the  true  uses  of  riches  and  of  position. 
Surely,  he,  of  all  men,  has  elevated  himself  into  the  rank 
of  a  man  commanding  universal  admiration. 

There  are  many  men  who  are  made  narrower  by 
abundance.  There  are  many  men  who  become  rich  that 
they  may  make  meanness  more  conspicuous.  Some  men 
pamper   themselves. 

They  separate  themselves  from  their  fellows.  All  God's 
bounties  fall  upon  them  as  water  falls  upon  the  sand. 
The  desert  drinks  it  in  and  gives  no  blade  of  grass,  no 
flower,  no  fruit  back  again. 

But  here  is  a  man  eminent  in  wealth,  allied  with  the 
world's  aristocracy,  standing  not  in  any  respect  higher 
in  his  own  estimation.  His  riches  brought  him  nearer  to 
the  human  heart  and  made  him  the  benefactor  of  those 
who  were  in  poverty — and  not  alone  of  his  own  kindred 
or  his  own  religion.  He  has  circumnavigated  the  globe 
on  missions  of  mercy.  And  though  primarily  and  properly 
his  message  and  mission  have  been  to  his  own  people,  yet 
when  in  the  providence  of  God  he  was  enabled  to  labor 
for  others,  his  great  and  generous  heart  has  included  all, 
though  they  were  called  by  different  names  in  religion  and 
nationality. 

His  is  the  brooding  of  a  spirit  so  great  that  his  wings 
could  spread  themselves  from  the  east  to  the  west,  and  the 
warmth  of  his  bosom  covers  the  whole  human  family. 

In  this  type  there  is  a  lesson  that  may  be  read  in  our 
day. 

We  are  a  people  on  whom  the  heavens  rain  gold.  We 
are  a  people  for  whom  God  has  commanded  the  earth  to 
render  up  her  fruits.  The  sea  washes  our  shores  with 
golden  sand,  and  for  us  the  genius  and  industry  of  the 
human  family  is  rearing  up  a  wealth  more  boundless  than 
anything  ever  known.  We  have  eminent  wealth.  We  have 
mountainous  wealth.  And  it  becomes  us,  that  are  blessed 
by  God  with  the  means  and  opportunities,  to  take  heed 
lest  of  the  means  we  make  curses.     It  is  a  goodly  thing  to 


lift  up  the  stately  form,  not  of  an  Idol,  but  of  a  man  with 
like  conditions  of  race,  into  whose  hands  God  has  given 
the  power  of  treasure,  and  to  see  how  he  has  used  it.  The 
life  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  shows  greatness.  And  the 
requital  comes.  It  echoes  from  every  quarter  of  this 
world  in  sympathy  with  the  m.an  who  has  used  his  power, 
not  for  his  own  exaltation,  but  for  the  relief  and  the  com- 
fort of  his  fellowmen.  It  is  God  who  is  the  great  Worker, 
who  sits  not  supine  to  be  worshipped,  but  who  everywhere 
is  active,  thinking,  living,  fostering  and  stimulating;  the 
great  burden-bearer  of  the  universe.  And  they  that  in 
imitation  employ  the  strength  of  their  reason  and  genius 
and  the  resources  of  their  riches  for  their  fellowmen, 
stand  not  only  high,  but  already  begin  to  stand  highest 
in  the  ranks  of  worshipped  men.  We  behold,  too,  how  a 
good  man  rises  above  all  the  separations  of  the  sects  of 
human  society.  What  potentates  today  one  hundred  years 
old  could  call  out  so  many  worshippers  out  of  his  own 
kingdom?  How  many  men  that  stand  today  fighting  the 
battles  of  the  sectarians  would  have  such  sympathy  in 
their  age  and  continued  health  as  has  been  brought  to 
this   man? 

Since  thousands  of  years  a  Jew  has  been  a  name  of 
reproach.  The  wanderings  in  the  desert  of  old  have  been 
nothing  in  comparison  to  the  wanderings  of  this  great 
people  all  over  the  world.  The  thunders  of  Sinai  have 
been  nothing  compared  with  the  thunders  of  persecution. 
I,  for  one,  am  glad  in  my  soul,  that  the  whole  world  is 
obliged  today  to  bow  down  to  the  name  of  a  Jew,  who 
stands  conspicuous  this  hour  above  the  head  and  shoulders 
of  ordinary  men,  for  his  goodness,  his  philanthropy,  for 
the  type  that  he  gives  us  of  true  manhood.  And  is  there 
this  admiration  for  the  man,  but  we  have  in  his  example 
a  lesson   to  ambition. 


To  get  a  riband  is  not  to  deserve  a  riband. 
To  get  a  coronet  is  not  to  deserve  a  corone 


Multitudes  of  men  have  crept  through  low  and  dirty 
ways  to  obtain  the  gem.  But  such  a  man  as  Sir  Moses 
Montefiore,  who  has  been  titled  by  the  hand  of  the  great 
Queen,  took  the  gift  not  to  receive  honor  from  It,  but  to 
reflect  honor  from  himself  upon  it.     And  every  man  after- 

37 


wards  shall  find  such  honors  to  be  more  valuable,  because 
he  has  owned  them. 

He  teaches  us  that  the  unity  of  the  human  family  is 
to  spring  from  the  heart  and  life,  and  not  from  any  exte- 
rior gifts  of  manhood. 

More  than  that.  All  the  world  says  of  such  a  man, 
"He  cannot  be  shut  up."  Still,  there  is  a  sense  in  which 
he  is  yours.  I  congratulate  you.  The  candle  that  burns 
in  the  window  of  my  humble  dwelling  is  my  own  in  a  sense. 
But  it  is  a  stormy  night.  The  weary  traveler  far  away 
sees  it  shine,  and  wrestling  with  the  snow  that  he  thinks 
will  be  his  winding  sheet,  he  makes  for  the  cheering  sight. 
So  with  Sir  Moses  Montefiore. 

He  belongs  to  humanity.  He  belongs  to  mankind.  He 
is  the  possession  of  the  whole  world.  And  here,  I  think, 
I  might  as  well  repeat  the  language  of  the  great  Paul. 
"Are  they  Hebrews?  So  am  I.  Are  they  Israelites?  So 
am  I.     Are  they  of  the  seed  of  Abraham?     So  am  I." 

If  all  Israelites  were  like  this  great  man  whose  birthday 
we  celebrate  today  then  I  am  a  Hebrew,  I  am  a  Jew,  I  am 
of  the  seed  of  Abraham. 

And  he  is  my  brother.  He  is  of  my  people.  He  belongs 
to  me  by  the  right  I  have  to  admire  whatever  is  good.  In 
such  a  man  I  recognize  the  breaking  down  of  the  middle 
wall  and  partition  between  you  and  me.  I  am  a  disciple 
and  teacher  of  the  New  Testament.  I  accept  the  Old. 
When  now  and  then  a  man  rises  who  unites  in  himself  the 
firmness  of  the  Old  and  the  fruits  of  the  New,  I  see  in 
that  man  the  arms  that  bring  the  old  and  new  together 
in  a  common  bond  of  unity. 

And  so,  as  a  Christian  gentleman  that  reveres  and  uses 
the  Old  Testament  as  the  ground  and  foundation  of  reli- 
gion, I  rejoice  that  I  am  privileged  to  stand  here  to  express 
my  reverence  and  admiration  for  this  great  man.  God  is 
greatly  good;  and  I  thank  him  for  having  raised  up  this 
philanthropist  and  given  him  length  of  days  and  honors  in 
the  sight  of  all  the  people. 

And  I  would  to  God  that  this  one  man  might  not  be 
the  only  man  of  t)ur  age.  If  Judaism  is  to  prevail — and 
may  God  speed  it — let  it  prevail  by  bringing  forth  such 
heroes  of  goodness,  and  then  all  the  world  shall  worship 
with  unity  and  mutual  confidence,  and  give  glory  to  God. 
No  matter  in  what  candlestick  the  candle  stands.     It  may 


IT  f 


be  of  lead,  of  iron,  of  gold,  or  one  studded  with  precious 
stones.  It  is  the  candle  which  signifies.  No  matter  in 
what  church  you  worship;  no  matter  to  what  sect  you 
belong.  No  matter  in  what  belief  you  are  fixed;  it  is  the 
living  heroic  life,  the  bounty  of  a  rich  heart  that  is  the 
candle,  giving  light  in  every  house  and  for  all  time. 


Supplementary  Note. — Since  the  aforegoing  article 
was  put  in  type,  my  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
Menorah  3Ionthly  of  March,  1905,  vol.  xxxviii,  pages 
130-140,  containing  a  full  reprint  of  the  sermon,  "Jew 
AND  Gentile."  We  are  told,  in  a  prefatory  note,  that 
the  original  manuscript  notes  of  this  address,  which 
proved  to  be  considerably  fuller  than  those  the  noted 
divine  usually  made  in  the  preparation  of  his  discourses, 
are  now  the  property  of  the  American  Jewish  Historical 
Society.  They  were  presented  by  A.  Abraham,  Esq.,  of 
Brooklyn,  who  in  turn  received  it  as  a  gift  from  Mr. 
H.  D.  Beecher,  a  son  of  the  distinguished  preacher.  In 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Abraham,  dated  May  11,  1887,  Mr.  Beech- 
er says: 

The  accompanying  notes  are  the  framework  of  the  ser- 
mon that  my  father,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  preached  Sun- 
day evening,  June  24,  1877,  on  the  Hebrew  race.  Having 
known  you  both  personally  and  as  a  business  man  for  a 
number  of  years,  it  seems  peculiarly  fitting  that  I  should 
present  this  document  to  you,  whom  I  regard  as  one  of  the 
best  representatives,  both  as  a  gentleman  and  as  a  man 
of  business,  of  the  great  Hebrew  race,  whom  my  father 
had  so  high  a  regard  for. 


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